Every new Android P feature we have found so far [Continuously updated

It’s that time of the year again. The days are getting longer, new hardware is being released, and Google has revealed the next version of Android. As of the March 7th release of the developer preview, we’ve worked our way down Alphabet’s alphabet all the way to “P.” We still don’t know what P is going to end up standing for (Pineapple upside-down cake?), but by now we’ve got some idea for the changes present in this latest/upcoming version of Android.

To paraphrase David, “I turned around, and it was Christmas.” Thanks to all our tipsters— we ❤ you— our collective Android Police inboxes overfloweth in a deluge of developer discovery. We’ve spent quite a lot of our time playing with Android P to show you all its new features. In fact, I’m even using it full-time on my daily driver—not that I’d recommend you do that.

By all this, we mean to say that, while we might not have discovered every new feature, we’ve uncovered quite a few. So, for both your and our convenience, we’ve put everything we’ve found together into a list with (very) brief summaries. That way you can both catch up if you’ve fallen behind with our Android P Feature Spotlights, and track future Android P features separately.

Entirely new features

Screenshot editing: you can crop and draw on screenshots you capture. This has been a long time coming.

Update: DP2 added support for this feature on the OG Pixel, as well as general improvements in both the editor and notification.

Volume buttons control media volume by default: Android does a lot of things really well, but audio management probably isn’t one of those things. Your hardware volume keys control different things, without much of an indicator until you actually press one. Now by default, it’s set to change media volume, as opposed to the ringer (as in Android O and before).

Zoom lens for text selection: like iOS has had since forever, when you select text, on P you can get a nice magnified view of the area above your finger.

Temporary rotation lock: a bit difficult to explain, but when you have rotation locked in portrait, a new icon appears on the nav bar when you turn your phone sideways that will quickly toggle to landscape, and vice-versa.

Alarm quick settings toggle: there’s a new Alarm tile/toggle in quick settings. It shows the next alarm, gives you a shortcut to all currently set alarms and allows you to easily set new ones.

Update: And it’s gone as of DP2, replaced by a bit of text above the brightness slider that shows your next alarm, if you have one.

App notification tracking: if you get an annoying notification, you can easily track down which app it came from. That should help cut down on notification spam (if you have problems with that).

Chrome-like ‘feature flags’: you know how Chrome has a bunch of extra options called “flags” for enabling testing features or tweaking things? Now Android has the same thing, called “feature flags.” Basically, all the unstable testing stuff with convenient toggles in one spot.

New App Switcher: Gone is the vertical list of recent apps, replaced in DP2 by a horizontally scrolling gallery. It even works with the gestures which arrived with the same update. Interestingly enough, it’s actually a part of the launcher.

App Actions: Detailed at I/O, App Actions are sort of like the existing app predictions in the Pixel launcher. But instead of simply recommending your next service, it takes things one step further by recommending your next action. Developers need to build specifically for this, though.

Ring mode shortcut: Pressing the power and volume up keys together triggers a customizable command that enables the Vibrate or Mute modes.

Accessibility Menu: We can’t actually find it yet, but Google assured us at I/O that P would include a new menu for motor-impaired users in the form of a convenient navigation bar shortcut.

Weather on the lockscreen: As of DP2, the local weather will be shown under the clock. Note, a later update to the Google app appears to have broken this in the short-term.

Calendar events on the lockscreen: It was previously part of the Pixel launcher, but now upcoming events in your calendar have joined the weather on the DP2 lockscreen. Again, a specific update for the Google App broke this. Only the version DP2 shipped with allows it to work (for now).

General visual changes

Display cutouts are supported (i.e., notches): The ZenFone wasn’t a fluke, looks like we can expect more phones in the style of the iPhone X, and Android will have software support for them.

Pixel Launcher, new mic icon, separate tab for Android for Work apps: Google’s constantly making little tweaks to the Pixel launcher. Android P brings a few small visual changes, like a new shaded background (gone in DP2) and mic icon for the search bar, plus a new app dichotomy in the form of two tabs, separating Android for Work apps from personal ones.

Update: The shaded white semi-transparent background for the dock is gone in DP2, there’s a new rotation button, and the aforementioned App Actions have been integrated into it, as well.

Hawt new transition animations: not the biggest changes, but the new animations for switching between apps and activities keep things fresh. (Also, I think they look good.)

Text selection tweaks: Google seems to have decided that the various all-caps text elements in Android were a bit much. Now the text selection dialog isn’t constantly yelling (and the “Web search” button is out of the menu).

Force stop/app version hidden: no functionality has been changed or removed here, but in Android P the “Force stop” button and has been sequestered into a menu button, and app version is in an “advanced” section.

Adaptive brightness: the brightness slider moves in real time to reflect display brightness when set to Adaptive.

Update: It’s also powered by AI, apparently. Presumably, that is new functionality as of DP2, but it’s possible it was in DP1 as well.

Modifications to existing features

Quick settings toggles are no longer expandable: some items in quick settings, like the Wi-Fi shortcut, used to be able to expand into a simple selector for quick changes, like swapping networks. As of Android P DP1, that is no longer the case.

Do Not Disturb is one setting, not three: “Total silence,” “Alarms only, and “Priority only” are all gone, there’s just one Do Not Disturb mode. At least you can configure it to individually match any of the others.

Manage notifications shortcut: At the bottom of the notification shade is a new shortcut that takes you to the app notifications settings screen, previously accessible via Settings.

Low battery notification tweaks: As of DP2, rather than provide you with the remaining estimated time, the “Battery is low” notifications will tell you the approximate time it will last until (e.g., “12:00PM” rather than “45 minutes”).

Do Not Disturb hides notifications: In the latest DP2 update, Do Not Disturb also prevents most notifications from appearing at all, replacing them with a “Do Not Disturb is hiding notifications” disclaimer in the notification shade.

Android TV setup improvements: When P hits Android TV, a host of convenient tweaks for the setup process will also be delivered, including app suggestions, password auto-fill, and an easy phone-based shortcut for the setup process.

System notification management: As of DP2, you can even control notifications from system apps, like System UI or Android System, meaning you can block things like battery or storage alerts from appearing—if you feel the need to.

Privacy tweaks

Update: As of DP2, notifications will show if the backgrounded app has requested permissions including the use of your camera or microphone.

Fingerprint dialog consistency, unencrypted HTTP block for some apps: Google has introduced a new API for fingerprint sign in, hoping to make things more visually consistent when apps ask for your digits’ details. Android P also blocks by default all cleartext traffic for apps that use Network Security Configuration, though it can be individually disabled per-domain if need be.

Slices: Related to the App Actions mentioned above, Slices are a bit like Intents, but turned up to 11. With it, apps can directly share functionality, effectively embedding part of an app (or, at least, information from it) inside another.

Vulcan: At I/O, Google confirmed that Android P would have support for v1.1 of the low-level API.

BiometricPrompt API: The old FingerprintManager API has been bundled together with iris and face authentication methods into a new API, deprecating the old one.

So far, these are all the new features we’ve found in Android P, but be sure to check back in if you’re following our feature spotlight coverage. And, as always, tips for undiscovered features are welcome.

Stuff discovered in Google’s latest Android P DP2 images has now been added, as well as features announced at Google I/O

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